emil fischer, guide to the san juan mines · ink and water-colors, executed by emil b. fis-cher.”...

Mapmaker Emil B. Fischer accomplished much to assist the mining community and to advance the economic and ar-tistic development of southwestern Colorado in the late

1880s. A surveyor’s son born in Dresden, Saxony, an eastern German state, in 1838 or 1839, he came to America in about 1872. He moved to Durango, Colorado, in 1880, when the building of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway into the San Juans attracted widespread attention,1 then settled in Silverton, where he cra�ed six detailed maps of the area before his death in 1898. Fischer’s maps aided silver and gold prospec-tors to �le their claims; they enabled investors to locate mines and view their proximity to their famous neighbors; and they encouraged tour-ists to visit the depicted mining regions and thereby invigorate the local economies.

Early Map Making in the San Juans

Fischer was not the �rst to represent this area on paper. In 1875 H. L. �ayer published his “Map of the San Juan Mines, Comprising the Eureka, Animas, & Part of the Uncompahgre and Lake Districts in La Plata County, Colorado.” �e following year, civil engineer Louis Nell teamed up with G. M. Wheeler to issue a 135-page topographical atlas containing, on sheet 61, a map of the “S.W. Colorado, San Juan Mining Region.” �e Hayden U.S. Geological Expedition facilitated the publi-cation of “Williams’ Tourists’ Map of Colorado and the San Juan Mines” in March 1877; it shows the entire state’s cities with their elevations, and

Emil Fischer,

Guide to the San Juan Mines

By Larry Godwin

2014 Mining History Journal69

towns, counties, railroad lines, mountains, rivers, and roads—but had no inset speci�c to the San Juans.

�en in 1880, Edwin Bolitho o�ered his “Map of San Juan, Colorado,” covering San Juan, Ouray, and Hinsdale counties. �e same year, Nell cre-ated his “Topographical & Township Map of Part of the State of Colorado, Exhibiting the San Juan, Gunnison & California Mining Regions” from a broad perspective, indicating county seats, post o�ces, and trails, as well as roads. In 1881 Moritz Stockder published his “Map of San Juan Mining Region,” compiled from U.S. Surveys and “other authentic sources.” Also in 1881, Arthur Lakes is-sued his elongated “Pro�le Map of Locations of Mines Near Animas Forks and Mineral City, San Juan County, Colorado,” showing the dozens of such properties situated in that part of the upper Animas Valley.2

Again in 1881, August F. Kibbe, resident of San Miguel City, Colorado, published his “Geo-graphical and Geological Map of �e San Juan Mining Region,” a sophisticated, much more de-tailed e�ort than previous ones to illustrate the features speci�c to this section of the state. It dif-ferentiates among wagon roads, stage routes, and trails; depicts minor as well as major creeks; and includes proposed and existing railroads. He em-ployed the scale of one-half inch to one mile. His originals incorporate a multicolor rendition of major geologic zones, such as eruptive, metamor-phic, and carboniferous.3

Enter Emil Fischer. According to Freda Pe-terson’s local history, �e Story of Hillside Cem-etery, this quiet, unobtrusive German immigrant made many mountain-climbing pilgrimages to produce his meticulous drawings of San Juan and adjacent counties, which he subsequently trans-ferred to maps that were as attractive as they were functional. (Color images of Fischer’s six maps, his 1895 painting, and his grave marker are avail-able on the Mining History Association’s website: www.mininghistoryassociation.org)4

Fischer’s Earlier Maps

Fischer drew his �nished maps, even the text elements, entirely by hand before engraving and printing,5 distinguishing them from the typeset variety that came before. �ey are scrupulously correct in detail and were regarded as authorita-tive for many years.6 �e complex terrain of the San Juans, characterized by precipitous peaks ranging from eleven thousand to fourteen thou-sand feet, rugged passes, deep gorges, alpine val-leys, and glacial basins, rendered accurate maps indispensable for miners and created a niche for this cartographer.

On 15 August 1882, a month a�er the Denver and Rio Grande reached Silverton, John Robin-son discovered ore rich in gold, copper, and silver on Red Mountain, seven miles north of the city.7 A stampede followed. In 1883, at age 45, Emil Fischer capitalized on the excitement with his �rst publication, a “Map of the San Juan Mining Districts” (opposite), which focuses on this new region, along with the lucrative ones already in the process of feverish development in this small portion of the state.

Fischer’s map covers the section from Ouray on the north to Durango on the south, and from Eureka on the east to Rico and Parrott (City) on the west. It measures forty-eight by sixty-one cen-timeters, with a scale of one inch to three miles. Place names, printed in black ink on beige, in-clude four mining districts—the Iron Spring, Pio-neer, California, and Needle Mountain—wagon roads with tollgates, trails, railroads, and mines—or “mineral locations,” as he called them—with the prominent ones named.

Fischer’s “Map of the San Juan Mining Dis-tricts” departs from his predecessors’ e�orts by adding several new categories: smelters, sawmills, coal deposits, timber stands, and grazing areas. He provided insets with plats of Durango, Silverton, and Rico. �e copyright notice bears the names of F. C. Lawrence—merchant in jewelry, watches, and �ne diamonds, and Fischer’s close friend in

70Emil Fischer, Guide to the San Juan Mines


Durango—and inventor George Freund, perhaps because these men possessed the �nancial resourc-es Fischer lacked to make publication possible.8

Fischer published his second creation, entitled “Map of Red Mountain and the Mining Region of San Juan, Ouray, San Miguel and Dolores Coun-ties” (opposite), in 1886. Unlike his 1883 map, it delineates relief by hachures, consisting of series of short, vertical parallel lines, to roughly portray elevations; the closer the lines appear together, the steeper the slope. White space denotes the beginning of timberline, and, on the le� side, the map lists the various mining districts by county, each one numbered.9

Fischer outlined the counties in color: San Juan in yellow, San Miguel in red, Ouray in blue, and Dolores in light green. He colored lakes blue and the trails red and underlined towns in red. �e map encompasses the territory from Portland, north of Ouray, on the north, to Rico and Elk Park, which lie north of Durango, on the south; then it stretches from Eureka on the east to Rico and Placerville on the west. A small inset portrays the system of wagon roads connecting Telluride and Ouray with Montrose.

Like his earlier map, this one indicates mine locations, though a smaller number, as well as stamp mills and concentrators. �e detail in this larger work—seventy-six by eighty-one centime-ters, using a scale of one inch to one mile—is ex-traordinary for the period. Lithographed by A. Gast Bank Note Company, it re�ects Fischer’s artistic talents and individualism, lending it an al-most folk-art appearance. As on his subsequent e�orts, except that of 1894, Fischer’s name ap-pears as copyright owner.

Fischer’s Later Maps

�e cartographer’s third publication, his sec-ond “Map of Red Mountain and the Mining Re-gion of San Juan, Ouray, San Miguel and Dolores Counties,” debuted in 1891 to update its prede-cessor. His largest to date, at eighty by ninety-two

centimeters, the map repeats the scale of the pre-vious work—one inch to one mile—and, likewise, represents relief by hachures and indicates spot heights. It encompasses the area from Ridgway on the north to Rico and Elk Park on the south, and, like the 1886 edition, extends from Eureka on the east to Rico and Placerville on the west. Inset plats focus on three mining locales of con-temporary interest: Newman Hill at Rico, the Red Mountain area, and Silver Lake in Arrastra Basin east of Silverton. Each of these insets illustrates the precise positions of overlapping claims.10

Like its counterpart published �ve years earli-er, Fischer’s 1891 map (p. 74) features an updated, numbered index of mining districts within each color-coded county. San Juan County, this time outlined in blue, now sports six rather than four such districts;11 Ouray and San Miguel Counties display one new district, boosting each of their totals to �ve;12 and in Dolores County, the Lone Cone has become part of the Mount Wilson Mining District. �is ambitious project shows the locations of hundreds of the San Juan region’s named mines and placers and may constitute a comprehensive compilation.

Fischer also brought the area’s railroad net-work up to date, noted the Montrose, Durango, Gunnison, and Del Norte land district boundar-ies, and indicated the site of a brewery near Silver-ton. �e map bears this notation: “�e Author claims Ten years original topographical �eld work of this section. . . . Sketches from Nature in Pencil, Ink and Water-Colors, executed by Emil B. Fis-cher.”

Unfortunately, Fischer traced his 1891 achievement on the wrong side of his prepared pa-per, making it impossible for the Chicago printer to make an impression. Consequently, he had to draw it a second time, delaying publication at least two months.13 However, the Silverton Standard proclaimed the �nished product “the most reli-able map of the district” and said that “to eastern people interested in the San Juan, it is invaluable.”14 Fischer began selling copies of his new map that


August for three dollars apiece,15 which translates to about seventy-eight dollars today.16

Fischer’s fourth major project was his sprawling 1893 “Map of Southwestern Colo-rado” (p. 75). Measuring 110 by 78 centimeters and drawn to a scale of one quarter inch to one mile, this map covers the huge expanse from Dal-las, Colorado, on the north, to Farmington, New Mexico, on the south, and from Del Norte, Colo-rado, on the east, to Blu� City, Utah, on the west. It embraces geographic and political features, in-cluding irrigation canals and land districts, cover-ing part or all of thirteen Colorado counties.17

�is work’s most remarkable characteristic is its striking beauty, demonstrating Fischer’s artis-tic talent. He distinguished one county from its neighbors via �lled-in pastel colors of bu�, gray, rose, and peach. �e Colorado Southern Ute In-dian Reservation appears on the state’s southern boundary with New Mexico—with the towns,

roads, and rivers of northwestern New Mexico be-low it—along with a portion of the Navajo Indian Reservation.

One inset pictures a plat of the city of Dur-ango and its surroundings, and another shows part of the proposed Southern Ute Reservation along with the existing Navajo Reservation exten-sion, both in eastern Utah. Insets in one corner highlight San Juan County, Utah’s geographic attributes, and southwestern Colorado’s Califor-nia Mining District, the latter giving numbered locations for eighty-two mining properties. Yet another inset shows the network of railroad sys-tems reaching Durango from Cheyenne, Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Phoenix. A �nal inset o�ers a plat of the Needle Mountain mines between Silverton and Durango in La Plata County.

Except within these insets, the map, with its broader scale, indicates only a few prominent

San Miguel County mines Fischer located on his 1891 map.


Fischer’s 1894 “Map of the Mineral Section of San Miguel County.”


San Juan County’s six mining districts �lled in with bold colors: the Las Animas and Uncompah-gre (spelled “Uncapahgre”) in red; the Cascade and Red Mountain in green; and the Ice Lake and Eureka in gold. �e 1898 map also displays three eastern San Miguel County mining districts, Up-per San Miguel in gold and Iron Spring and Trout Lake both in red, and the southern portion of the Red Mountain Mining District of Ouray County, in beige. Lakes appear in green. �e map notes relief via hachures, but contains no insets.

�e 1898 map omits some mines illustrated in the 1891 version, perhaps because they had lost prominence; however, it adds a dozen mines southeast of Silverton and two dozen east of Elk Park, both in the Las Animas Mining District, as well as a number of others in Picayune Gulch, north of Eureka in the Eureka Mining District. �e newer map also indicates more tramways and tunnels than the earlier e�ort.

�e 1898 map measures seventy-three by ninety-one centimeters, with a superlative scale of one and a half inches to one mile. Along the right margin appears the following text: “Copy-right: Entered by Emil B. Fischer 1898, in the of-�ce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. All rights reserved. �e author claiming 17 years original topographical �eld work of this section. Silverton, Colorado. 1898.”

Fischer had just placed this artwork on the market before his death in September of that year.21 Sales of the 1898 map languished, perhaps due to the appearance a year earlier of the �rst USGS topographic map of the region, which likely was distributed free or sold for a sum as nominal as �ve cents.22 In 1903, however, San Juan County o�cially adopted this Fischer map as part of its description of election precinct boundaries.23

Fischer produced these six maps, except the 1894 and possibly the 1898, as “pocket maps,” i.e., they came folded and packaged in printed enclo-sures for safe, easy transport. Perhaps the cartogra-pher produced other maps that have not survived. An 1885 article alluded to one he constructed of

mines (e.g. the Yankee Girl south of Ironton). It omits hachures except within Colorado’s south-western Montezuma County and three of the in-sets. As with his previous projects, latitude and longitude �gures are hand-inked into the mar-gins.

�e following year, 1894, Emil Fischer issued his lesser-known, limited-scope “Map of the Min-eral Section of San Miguel County” (p. 76). It measures only thirty-six by forty-one centimeters. �e publisher, the Telluride Board of Trade, at-tached it to a booklet entitled Resources and Min-eral Wealth of San Miguel County, Colorado: Past, Present and Future. Fischer employed the scale of one inch to one mile for this black-ink map, which spans the eastern part of the county from Mears Peak on the north to Sheep Mountain on the south, and from Ingram Lake, just west of the San Miguel-Ouray county line, on the east, to Placerville on the west.18

Fischer’s 1891 map formed the basis for this one, for the cartographer li�ed, in the identical script, the San Miguel County part of the San Juan region from the earlier map, and, in his own handwriting, added a dozen mines to bring it up to date. In addition, he included the new alternat-ing-current power plant at Ames, south of Illium, the �rst in Colorado.19 Fischer returned to the global use of hachures to designate relative eleva-tions but, for unknown reasons, omitted longi-tude and latitude numbers. Although this map is untitled and without credit or copyright, Fischer obviously created it.

�e artist’s �nal cartographic achievement was his 1898 map of “�e Principal Mining Section of San Juan County” (opposite). Fischer intended it to update his somewhat larger 1891 creation. Smaller in scope than its predecessors, except the 1894, it covers the area from Mt. Abram and Min-eral Point on the north to Elk Park on the south, and from the Continental Divide east of Eureka on the east to the Ophir Loop and Trout Lake on the west.20

In a departure from his 1891 map, it denotes


the routes from southwestern Colorado to the gold placers north of the San Juan River near the Henry Mountains in southeastern Utah.24

�e interested reader may view Fischer’s origi-nals at a number of libraries and other locations in the U.S., principally in Colorado.25 Some institu-tions, including the Denver Public Library, which houses all six of his maps, sell high-resolution digital images.

Emil Fischer the Artist

Emil Fischer’s artistic gi�s bore fruit through his paintings and sketches as well as his maps. His most famous, painted in 1895, depicts Francis Marion Snowden’s cabin, the �rst in Baker’s Park, where Silverton now stands. It portrays both the majestic physical setting and, with a touch of hu-mor, the 1874 founding settlers’ revelry. In vivid colors it features a man racing a horse at full gal-lop; another man swinging a rabbit over his head by its ears while a child tugs at his pants, evidently trying to stop him; a man chugging liquor from a jug; another passed out, leaning against the cabin; and a settler throwing up beside a cabin corner. Fischer’s �gures appear a bit stilted rather than entirely natural.

Fischer presented this treasure, in which he “took much pride,”26 to San Juan Lodge No. 33 of the Masonic order in Silverton, which may have speci�cally commissioned it.27 �e San Juan County Historical Society has recently acquired the painting for its Silverton museum.

A black-and-white photomechanical repro-duction of another Fischer painting—“Parrott City, County Seat of La Plata County, Colo., June 1881”—enhances the art collection of the Denver Public Library. �e work presents a panoramic view overlooking the now-defunct mining town of Richmond (Parrott City), lying at the foot of dramatic peaks.28

�e writer is not aware of other paintings or sketches by Fischer that have survived. How-ever, a May 1881 newspaper article related that

Fischer was laboring on a painting of Durango, “which when �nished will show the town and its surroundings in all the[ir] natural beauty.”29 �e same paper reported the painting completed the following month.30 �e next year, 1882, Fischer sketched, in watercolors, the La Plata Mountains near Durango. From that sketch and other draw-ings, he intended to paint one grand picture of the entire district, twelve by thirty-six feet, for a Den-ver exhibition.31 Apparently Fischer also painted a likeness of the original hotel at Trimble Hot Springs and an image of the area around Baker’s Bridge, both north of Durango,32 and probably others. He frequently sketched mining properties for their owners, including the Mastodon Mine northwest of Eureka, an illustration which Ras-mus Hanson commissioned in 1894.33 In 1895 Fischer drew the upper part of Eureka Gulch for the miners in that locality.34

It seems that Fischer led the life of an incon-spicuous artist, and for that reason biographical details emerge only with di�culty. �e writer has not been able to discover Fischer’s physical descrip-tion or a photo of him or evidence that he mar-ried. An exhaustive review of articles of the time from the Silverton, Durango, Cortez, and Tellu-ride newspaper archives has yielded few glimpses of his personal life. �ese periodicals occasionally spelled his name “Fisher.” Several referred to him as “Prof. Fischer,” most likely an honorary title re-lated to his status as an artist. (Orchestra conduc-tors of that era were o�en called “professor.”)35

Fischer prospected occasionally, once up Ce-ment Creek. On another excursion, while sketch-ing Engineer Mountain and the Cascade Creek area southwest of Silverton from Grizzly Peak, he came upon an ore specimen near his campsite that assayed rich in gold, but several parties he direct-ed there later could not locate the site.36 By habit he seemed to spend summers in Silverton,37 and, perhaps for health reasons, wintered at his small ranch in the Montezuma Valley,38 which lies west of Durango at a much lower altitude. However, he passed the summer of 1890 surveying for the


Rio Grande and Utah Railroad.39

It is tempting to speculate about how Fisch-er conducted his business. Likely he packed his compass, �eld glasses, sketch pad, pencils, and erasers in saddlebags and headed o� to climb mountains to gain panoramas of the terrain and a sense of perspective. A packhorse laden with his tent, bedroll, food, and hunting ri�e would trail along behind. He would ascend ledge trails and stop to chat with miners and freighters and pat a burro’s nose. From atop Kendall Mountain, Fischer would have noticed how Arrastra Creek curves slightly to the west before it empties into the Animas River near the Aspen Mine. From this vantage point, he would have spotted details of elevation and mining activity on the opposite side of the valley.

Fischer would draw mine portals for owners while their ore cars clattered over rails from inside tunnels to dump loads of fragmented vein rock dotted with galena and iron pyrite. He would crane his neck passing beneath whirring tramway cables whose buckets carried silver, gold, and lead ores from mines to mills adjacent to railroad lines, and transported sides of beef, drill bits and ham-mers, dynamite, and lumber back up the moun-

tain. In the spring, perhaps he dodged avalanches in a compulsion to �nish plotting a key sector to meet a self-imposed deadline. His expedition completed, Fischer would return to his home and, from his sketches, add detail to the story in geog-raphy he was constructing.

Emil Fischer’s Legacy

Emil B. Fischer died on 23 September 1898, at the age of ��y-nine, of “paralysis of the heart.”40 He collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the First National Bank in Silverton, where he had just transacted some business. Reportedly his only known survivor was a sister in Dresden.41 Dave Ramsey of Durango cut Emil Fischer’s head-stone.42 His obituary in the Durango Democrat re-vealed his �nal circumstances and paid a poignant tribute to the guide to the San Juan mines:

Judge Richard McCloud has a letter from Fischer, written on the 17th. It is very pathetic. He said he was then a physi-cal and �nancial wreck; there had been no sale for his excellent maps recently issued and he expressed the regret that there was

Fischer’s 1895 painting of Francis Marion Snowden’s Cabin


so little to do in his line to earn money. He told a sorrowful story of his condition of health. Since his residence here he has, in his labors to earn a competency by map mak-ing and sketching, rendered the country many valuable services which have been very poorly paid. Prof. Fischer was un-fortunately one of the great class whom God had richly endowed with talents, but to serve the public for a miserable existence, a pittance now and then and some crumbs. Fischer was a genius who could have shone in comparison with the world of genius. He was unfortunate not to have found a niche in his life career which would better have enabled him in his last hours to enjoy life a little longer.43

Although the details of his decline are poorly documented, it appears Emil Fischer died alone and relatively poor despite his notable abilities.

His six maps and his paintings showcase the rich mining history of the San Juans. Unlike his pre-decessors, contemporaries, or the USGS that fol-lowed, he combined aesthetic �air with accurate cartography, making his work unique and creat-ing a market for it more than a century a�er he died. California rare-map dealer Barry Ruder-man recently sold one of Fischer’s 1893 maps for $6,500.44

Fischer’s fate seemed to parallel that of other struggling artists. �e writer believes he remained intent on following an inner �re that drove him to reveal the land he loved, to share its essence with others, and to help them comprehend and traverse it. He remained �ercely committed to his calling in de�ance of �nancial setbacks and in spite of health complications that likely arose from the region’s altitude. He would not move on to another mining region nor would he embrace a more lucrative trade. Instead, doubtless due to strong emotional ties, he persisted in surveying this particular terrain and then interpreting it with faithfulness and beauty.

Acknowledgements

�e writer would like to thank these individu-als who signi�cantly contributed to his research: Telluride map collector and historian Dirk A. de Pagter; Christopher J. J. �iry, map librarian, Col-orado School of Mines; Casey Carroll, archivist, and Beverly Rich, chairman of the board of direc-tors, San Juan County Historical Society; Carolyn Bowra, director, the Animas Museum; Mark Esper, editor, the Silverton Standard; Sarah Gilmor, ref-erence librarian, History Colorado; Jackie Dorr, manager of special projects, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration; Brian King, fellow at the Center for Southwest Research; Jay T. Har-rison, director, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College; L. Michael Kaas, web coordinator, Mining History Association; Freda Carley Peter-son; Noel Kalenian, reference librarian, and Coi Drummond-Gehrig, Digital Image Sales and Re-

Emil Fischer’s grave marker, Hillside Cemetary, Silverton, Colorado. Photo by the author.


search, Western History-Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library; Tom Overton and James Speed Hensinger, Rocky Mountain Map Society; Jovanka Ristic, American Geographical Society Library; Ruth Lambert, cultural program direc-tor, San Juan Mountains Association; Robert Mc-Daniel, former director of the La Plata County Historical Society; Laura Schneider, Hinsdale County Museum; Abraham Kaleo Parrish, head of the Map Department, Sterling Memorial Li-brary, Yale University; Paul and Mary Beaber, Hillside Cemetery Committee; and former Sil-verton mayor Terry Kerwin.

On the morning of 28 July 1987, while strolling through historic Hillside Cemetery above Silverton, Colorado, Larry Godwin spotted Emil Fischer’s grave marker. �at a�ernoon he began researching the map-maker at the town library through articles in the Sil-verton Standard. He feels a deep connection to Mr. Fis-cher, which he believes originated in a previous life. He discovered the Mining History Association in 2013. A retired accounting professor, Godwin lives with his wife, Cathy, in Missoula, Montana. He invites any reader who knows additional details about Emil Fischer to please contact him at: [email protected].

Notes:

1. Montezuma Journal (Cortez, CO), 30 Sep. 1898, 4 (reprinted from the Durango [CO] Democrat). �e article, Fischer’s obituary, reported that he traveled in 1872 or 1873 directly from New York to Omaha, where he worked for Kountze Brothers in mercantile and banking for two or three years. Prior to locating in Durango, he visited California and also resided in Denver.

2. �e Hinsdale County Museum in Lake City sells copies of this map for one dollar.

3. Allen Nossaman, Many More Mountains, Volume 3: Rails into Silverton (Denver: Sundance Publications Ltd., 1998), 258.

4. Freda Carley Peterson, �e Story of Hillside Cemetery, Silverton, San Juan County, Colorado, Volume 1, A-L, Revised (Silverton: San Juan County Historical Society, 1996), p. F-10.

5. Note attached to an image of Fischer’s 1886 map posted on rare-map dealer Barry Ruderman’s website: www.raremaps.com

6. Peterson, Story of Hillside Cemetery, F-10.7. Nossaman, Many More Mountains 3, 264-5.8. Emil Fischer, “E. Fischer’s Map of the San Juan Mining

Districts, Colorado,” Durango, CO: s.n, 1883. Ad-vertisements for both Lawrence and Freund appear on the map packet.

9. Emil Fischer, “Map of Red Mountain and the Mining Region of San Juan, Ouray, San Miguel, and Dolores Counties, Colorado,” St. Louis: A. Gast Bank Note & Litho. Co., 1886. �e mining districts denoted were Las Animas, Red Mountain, Eureka, and Un-capahgre [sic] for San Juan County; Red Mountain, Uncapahgre [sic], Mt. Sne�es [sic], and Camp Paquin for Ouray County; Upper San Miguel, Lower San Miguel, Iron Spring, and Trout Lake for San Miguel

County; and Pioneer and Lone Cone for Dolores County.

10. Emil Fischer, “Map of Red Mountain and the Mining Region of San Juan, Ouray, San Miguel, and Dolores Counties, Colo.,” Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1891.

11. San Juan County’s additions were the Cascade and Ice Lake districts.

12. �e Sentinel District was added in Ouray County and the Mount Wilson District in San Miguel County.

13. Silverton [CO] Standard, 20 June 1891.14. Silverton Standard, 23 July 1892.15. Silverton Standard, 15 Aug. 1891.16. Based on estimates from the Consumer Price Index [$3

x (701.5/27)].17. Emil B. Fischer, “Map of Southwestern Colorado,” s.l.,

s.n., 1893. �e counties covered are Montrose, San Miguel, Ouray, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Rio Grande, Dolores, San Juan, Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta, Conejos, and Saguache.

18. [Emil Fischer], “Map of the Mineral Section of San Miguel County, Colorado U.S.A.,” [Telluride, CO: Telluride Board of Trade, 1894].

19. Eric Twitty, Historic Mining Resources of San Juan County, Colorado (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, revised Mar. 1992), 75.

20. Emil B. Fischer, “�e Principal Mining Section of San Juan County, Colorado,” Silverton, CO: Emil B. Fis-cher, 1898.

21. (Telluride, CO) Daily Journal, 26 Sep. 1898, 1 (reprint-ed from the Silverton Miner of 24 Sep.).

22. Conversation with a USGS representative, 5 Aug. 2013.

23. Silverton Standard, 3 Oct. 1903.


24. �e Idea (Durango, CO), 14 Mar. 1885.25. Locations with Fischer map holdings include: Denver

Public Library (all six maps); Colorado School of Mines (1883, 1886, 1891, 1893); Colorado College (1886, 1891); Fort Lewis College, Center of South-west Studies (1886, 1891); Fort Lewis College, John F. Reed Library (1898); Univ. of Colorado, Den-ver, (1894); Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs (1894); San Juan County Historical Society Archives, Silverton (1886); O�ce of San Juan Coun-ty Treasurer, Silverton (1891); Library of Congress (1893, 1898); Yale Univ. (1886, 1891, 1894, 1898); Columbia Univ. (1894); Brigham Young Univ. (1893); Univ. of Nevada, Reno (1893); Univ. of Il-linois, Urbana-Champaign (1893); Southern Meth-odist Univ. (1893); Autry Institute for the Study of the American West, Los Angeles (1893).

26. Silverton Standard, 12 Sep. 1896.27. Allen Nossaman, Many More Mountains, Volume 1: Sil-

verton’s Roots (Denver: Sundance Publications Ltd., 1989). �e painting appears on page 205.

28. Durango [CO] News, 14 Aug. 1936.

29. Durango [CO] Record, 21 May 1881 (and Durango [CO] Herald, 14 Aug. 1936).

30. Durango Record, 4 June 1881.31. Durango Weekly Herald, 29 May 1882.32. Robert McDaniel, former director of the La Plata Coun-

ty Historical Society, e-mail to the author, 13 May 2013.

33. Silverton Standard, 25 Aug. 1894.34. Silverton Standard, 20 July 1895.35. Carolyn Bowra, director of the Animas Museum, e-mail

to the author, 11 June 2013.36. Retrospectives from the Durango Herald, 21 July 1911,

and the Durango Semi-Weekly Herald of the same week.

37. Silverton Standard, 22 June 1895.38. Peterson, Story of Hillside Cemetery, F-10.39. Silverton Standard, 12 Apr. 1890.40. Daily Journal, 26 Sep. 1898, 1.41. Peterson, Story of Hillside Cemetery, F-10.42. Peterson, Story of Hillside Cemetery, F-10.43. Montezuma Journal, 30 Sep. 1898, 4.44. Barry Ruderman, e-mail to the author, 12 Aug. 2014.

emil fischer, guide to the san juan mines · ink and water-colors, executed by emil b. fis-cher.”...

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